Wednesday, 9 October 2013

YiQuan Chinese Yoga Body Structure Changes

"The Way of Heaven is like stringing a bow, pulling down the high, lifting up the low, shortening the long, lengthening the short.
the Way of Heaven takes from the long and supplements the short,
unlike the Way of Man taking from the short and giving to the long
.who can find the long and give it to the world, only those who find the Way.
thus the sage does not presume on what he does or claim what he achieves thus he chooses to hide his skill.
Nothing in the world is weaker than water, but against the hard and the strong nothing excels it, for nothing can change it.
the soft overcomes the hard, the weak overcomes the strong, this is something everyone knows but no one is able to practice." - Daoist Sage LaoZi (~6th Century BC), DaoDeJing (Red Pine translation, 1996), 77.1-78.2.

The following picture shows the progress of the author's training in YiQuan SanTi posture over the course of 1 year:

Most progress, beyond the initial increase in uprightness of the back, has been made (so far) in the transition of the hips to a more forward-facing direction, and the rear knee becoming positioned more over the toes of the rear foot. These details are necessary features of a more correct YiQuan SanTi posture.

The above progress has been made with an emphasis on daily practice (standing once a day for more than 1 hour), and after four 9 day intensive retreats at TaoLin YiQuan Academy - doing standing posture twice a day for more than 1 hour each time, and practicing various moving exercises which encourage further opening of the joints (a total 6 hours of training each retreat day). There were a few full-day visits to the academy in-between the retreats also, probably totalling to another 9 days.

More progress needs to be made, however; to tuck the hips under more in order to straighten the back, for the rear knee to move more above the rear foot, and for the hips to become more front-facing.